


Call of the Sea

by annavale23



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Also a little all over the place, Character Study, Elizabeth is not just abandoned and left pregnant, F/M, Flying Dutchman, Introspection, Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Pirate Elizabeth Swann, Pirate King Elizabeth Swann, The Black Pearl (Pirates of the Caribbean), Will can escape his fate if Elizabeth meets him on land after ten years, because why
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 12:03:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20582198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annavale23/pseuds/annavale23
Summary: Standing on the edge of the ship, watching the world whirl on by, all that sea and salt burning her eyes, and she knows, this is where she belongs.At sea.With her heart beating in time with the waves, she belongs out here.She can not return to land.





	Call of the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> Just finished re-watching these movies after a long time, so thought I'd write my first fic for these guys. It just never sat right with me how Elizabeth is just left pregnant and alone after AWE - it's a too-common fate for female characters I think. So the 'AU' bit it really that she doesn't have Henry at all in this fic. Also, I chose to use the whole 'if his true love is waiting, he's freed' thing for Will. This fic's a little short and all over the place, but thought I'd post regardless.

The sea.

_The sea._

It has always called to her.

For so long, that Elizabeth could hardly remember a time that she didn’t hear it, in her heart, in her veins. The voice of the salt, of the beats of the waves against the side of a boat, sailing all of those seas.

The sea.

Standing on the edge of the ship, watching the world whirl on by, all that sea and salt burning her eyes, and she knows, this is where she belongs.

On the ocean.

With her heart beating in time with the waves, she belongs out here.

She can not return to land.

Where she is imprisoned in silk and wool and stays, kept in place as a woman, made to marry and stay, locked like some damn jewel, meant to shine and look pretty even as her insides wither away and turn to dust.

And yes, if she returned, she would have Will at her side and he would make things better, bearable, but it would still be the same. She’d dream of the sea and he’d do anything to make her happy, but if they go back to land, she would never be able to leave. Her obligations would weigh her down like weights around her neck, drowning her in water-less waves.

So she can not return to land.

Because the sea has her heart, goddamn it, and she can not leave without it.

So when Will leaves, taking his heartless body to the sea, she can not stay on land. Not alone, not without Will, the only reason she would bear land in the first place. So she takes to sea, alone and without Will, but with the beating of his heart close to hers, and the _Black Pearl _is the first to take her, with its wooden decks that have seen much by now and its captain all too willing to invite her aboard with an extended hand and a wink in her direction. She looks at land as she sails to the sea, knowing, truly and utterly, that this is where her heart belongs.

She is at sea.

Where she belongs.

She goes on land occasionally. Supply runs, that sort of thing.

Every time she does, she’s glad when she returns to the ocean, as it pulls her closer.

She belongs to the sea, and to Will.

She drops letters, wrapped tightly in bottles, into the ocean’s peaceful and cruel waves, each letter addressed to the man she holds the heart of. Eventually, she always gets something back, words scratched into paper with all the tenderness he used to use against her skin as he held her hand. She treasures every word and sends her own, imagining his hands touching the paper she’s traced oh-so delicately with her skin, hoping he can take every single trace of the love and everything she’s imbued into it.

She mentions her letters, and the ones she gets back, to no one, but she’s sure Jack knows anyway.

When Jack loses the _Pearl, _once more to Barbossa, Elizabeth takes this as her cue to depart for new horizons.

She is still the Pirate King, and apparently that sort of thing does not go away.

She doesn’t have much to do, in the sort of kingly business, but it grants her a certain sense of honour among the pirates. She can travel on any ship, she soon sees, as long as she is quiet and respects the rules, and eventually she even gains a ship of her own, complete with crew and all. She collects the misfits on her ship, the ones with nowhere to go and everything to lose.

None of them know of her husband’s beating heart.

None of them even know she’s married.

The first time she sees Will, at sea and not land, she is on the _Pearl._

The _Dutchman_ looks better than it did under Jones’ command. Cleaner.

Jack looks hungrily at it as it approaches, and Elizabeth searches for the man who she holds the heart of.

Their ships meet.

She’s first off the _Pearl, _diving onto the decks of a ship she would have once done anything to get off of, and she finds him.

_Will_.

His hands, rougher than she remembers, take her face in them and his lips taste like sea salt and in his arms, she is home.

They see each other again before the end of the years.

Once a year on average, if Elizabeth’s worked that out properly.

The next times, she’s not only on the _Pearl. _She’s on her ship too.

Sometimes she gets to _really_ see him, really touch him. Those are the good times, where she takes him to her quarters and her crew don’t mention it, don’

Others, she only sees him on his ship, his eyes hungry when they see her, and her lips yell only _I love you_ because she doesn’t want to keep him from his duty. Others still, she only sees the ship, like a spectre on the horizon before it vanishes once more. Those, she thinks, are the least cruel, because he is gone before she starts to feel the keen in her chest, the ache that makes her want him more than ever. When she only glances the ship, she only _wonders_.

No matter how he appears though, she drinks it in.

Her Will.

Cursed to the seas that own her heart.

She learns, as she sails between myth and reality, there’s a chance.

If she meets him on the day on land, he could be free.

For if his true love waits, his duty is unbound and all that’ll be left is to find a new captain for the _Dutchman_.

She waits for that day.

Because she _will_ be waiting.

Throughout the adventures, the meetings, the close-misses, the letters, Jack, the _Pearl_, the running, she waits.

She holds his heart and she waits.

The sea brought Will Turner to her, all those years ago.

The sea took him too, and took her as well, to adventure on its salty waves. Blood and pirates and damn Jack Sparrow – excuse her, _Captain_ Jack Sparrow – and through honour and vows. A scar on their palms and a kiss shared with her father’s blessing. The sea interrupted their wedding with its call, and then took them with it through danger and problem after problem. She sent the sea a kissed sacrifice in Jack, and the sea took Will into its embrace again, to breathe in him life.

Throughout it all, Elizabeth Swann belonged to the sea.

And through it, to Will.

It was the reason she met Will, and the reason he left her.

It had given her reason to exist.

And now, she leaves it.

Bare feet to land.

The day before _the one_, the one where Will will walk on land again, just ten years later, and she’s come to the island they last parted at.

She sits, and she waits.

The sounds of the waves in her ears.

The sand between her toes.

His heart cupped in her hands.

Beating, always beating.

Her sign that he lives, that he is strong and that he is hers.

She does not sleep.

She looks and she waits and soon enough-

There is green on the horizon.

He rows to he and she is done waiting.

His feet find land first and then his lips find hers, eager and ready.

And it is enough.

Last time they’d stepped on land together, he’d given her his still-beating heart.

This time, she gives it back.


End file.
